Elephant Shell

There are worlds of arcane meaning concealed within Tokyo Police Club’s short and sharp-edged songs. After a promising debut EP, this Canadian quartet gets down to some serious, weird business on 2008’s *Elephant Shell*, a jagged sonic junkshop filled with tongue-twisting lyrics and leg-entangling rhythms. Tokyo Police Club follows in the avant-funk tradition pioneered by Gang of Four and the Contortions, with the visceral kick of the Strokes thrown in. David Monks’ pumping bass and pinched vocals set the tone for these tracks, and the grooves here are compelling, whether the band is marching with drunken dignity (“Listen to the Math”), staggering across barbed-wire guitar lines (“In a Cave”) or rushing pell-mell towards imaginary exits (“Sixties Remake”). *Elephant Shell*’s wordplay is likewise hard to shrug off, with “Tessellate” and “Your English is Good” noteworthy for their surreal imagery and well-chosen non sequiturs. Monks may throw the dictionary at the listener, but when it counts, he connects with tasty (if morbid) phrases and absurdist insights enjoyable by anyone with an appetite for pungent, astringent rock.

Following on from one of the most well received 16 minutes of music in recent history (2007's A Lesson In Crime EP), Newmarket, Ontario's Tokyo Police Club will be releasing their debut album Elephant Shell, due out 5 May on Memphis Industries. Elephant Shell lands roughly a year and half after A Lesson In Crime and barely three years on from the band's 2005 formation. The EP would be lauded by Rolling Stone ("If only all young guitar bands were smart enough to rock out this fast"); The Guardian ("Short sharp bursts of nonchalant arrogance. Thrilling"); NME ("The most perfect, weirdly askew band the other side of the pond has produced since Pavement"). It would go on to sell over 50,000 copies - probably about 49,000 more than the band were expecting. Not bad for four kids who self taught during senior year at high school. Tokyo Police Club set about tearing round the world in a beat up ford transit, touring the US four times in 07 playing variously with Cold War Kids and Bloc Party and selling out headline shows at El Rey and Bowery Ballroom and standing out as highlights of Lollapalooza Bummerfest.... In the UK they sold out their first headline tour in seconds, owned the John Peel stage at Glastonbury and the new bands tent at Reading/Leeds. Whereas vocalist David Monks, lead singer/bassist, described A Lesson in Crime at the time of release as "wide-eyed post-punk with a tendency to get over excited", keyboardist Graham Wright insists that Elephant Shell provides” that nostalgic feeling, the feeling of falling in love with girls and with music and with life.” Elephant Shell is built on the same rapid-fire foundations but is now built high with corridors of soaring sonic invention. The album delivers on every bit of promise of A Lesson in Crime. The opening one-two rapid-fire salvo of "Centennial" and "In A Cave" barely evaporates before "Graves" and "Juno" pack innumerable hooks and "what-does-that-remind-me-of" glimmers into taut 2-minute-and-change frameworks, while “Tessellate" and "Sixties Remake" encapsulate everything great about the manic TPC live experience: soaring guitar signatures and keyboard figures, driving backbeats and irresistible sing-along’s abound. Elsewhere, "The Harrowing Adventures Of..." and the dubbed out standout "Listen To The Math" find our young protagonists stretching out, hinting at a new-found maturity and ably adapting their energy into more subdued structures before the rousing coda of "The Baskervilles" brings the record to a shuddering halt.

After two years' worth of suspense-- and a few snappy EPs-- Tokyo Police Club's Elephant Shell finally arrives and finds the group waxing bookish and/or emo like fellow Saddle Creek stars Bright Eyes or the Decemberists.

It's generally good when bands mature: Youthful exuberance and attitude can only be convincing for so long. Tokyo Police Club, a Canadian outfit populated by young men barely into their 20s, came out swinging with A Lesson In Crime, an EP that made up for in fiery energy what it lacked in running time. Elephant Shell,…

If the Lesson in Crime EP introduced Tokyo Police Club as Canadian disciples of the Strokes, then Elephant Shell finds them shedding their vintage leather jackets in favor of several different getups.

Canadian yelpers Tokyo Police Club map out the crucial difference between cursory and terse on their debut full length.

Tokyo Police Club - Elephant Shell review: Tokyo Police Club produce half an hour of indie pop goodness with their first full length, 'Elephant Shell', but a sense of familiarity stops it from reaching greatness.